The McLaughlin's

The days keep moving and the boys keep growing! We’ve had some fun these past months. Since we’ve posted last we celebrated Halloween and Malcolm saw his first fireworks! “Lites Boom Boom!” Aunt B came to visit, dad went hunting and the men got a moose, and now dad’s home and the men are all cutting up moose in the hanger today. Our pigs have been sent to the big farm in the sky and the turkeys won’t be far behind. Malcolm is well into big kid potty training and doing really well; I’d say a 80% success rate. We are gearing up to get ready for Christmas and spending lots of time with friends and family.

A big fun thing that happened was Port McNeill Kids in Motion (that I’m on the board of) actually opened our play centre! We got together just a little over a year ago with the vision of bringing an indoor pay gym for kids aged 0-9 to Port McNeill. After a year of fundraising and figuring out space, equipment purchases, insurance and everything else – we’re open. The kids LOVE it. I volunteer Wednesday afternoons, the boys come with me and hang out for the couple hours and they play.

Holy cow! What a summer. We have been having SUCH a blast down here on the farm. The boys are full of hilarity and I find myself laughing out loud often. This morning I went to get the boys out of their cribs and get ready for the day. Malcolm was alone in his bare crib, not one of his one thousand stuffed animals in sight he pointed to his brother and said “throw!” I look at Ewan, and he’s almost completely covered, drowning in a sea of stuffies. They were both belly laughing. Seriously you guys this is a blast.

Malcolm’s new best friends are the chickens (Bikins, bra ba ba) and Turkeys (TooKeys, beep beep beep). He loves to collect the eggs, pet the turkeys and throw their food at them. He often requests eggs for breakfast and tells me they come from chickens. Ewan also loves the turkeys, and the feeling is very mutual.

Mal is into dressing himself now, and when I go to wake him from naps he is either half dressed or totally stripped pointing to his diaper and informing me he’s pooped (boop). It’s a big step from taking the diaper off and doing unholy things to his room, hallelujah.

Ewan has embraced balance. He can now sit in his chair, or even the wagon Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Eissfeldt bough Malcolm. He is walking along the furniture, and practicing standing unassisted. He’s a real little farmer, he likes to eat apples off our tree, plant life of all kinds, and – I’m sorry, but he ate a slug this year and while he was fine, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.

We’re buttoning the farm up for winter! The last to be harvested is our spaghetti squash which I’m just going down to grab after hitting publish. The turkeys and pigs have a date with destiny late November, and finally the wood stove is burning.

So Malcolm had a birthday Party on Saturday! It was wonderful; people came to celebrate, enjoy Moose Burgers, Deer Sausages, and cake. We couldn’t have the fire or the fireworks due to a fire ban but man was it still fun anyways. Kids were running around, enjoying the toys, animals, and wide open spaces; adults were enjoying beer, wine, and visiting.

Right before everyone showed up, I had to wake Mal up from his afternoon nap. He is so little! He can’t be two already.

As we made our way down to the yard he was just pretty excited to hang out in dad’s garage with all the bikes. Darius Hogstead showed up and he was SO EXCITED to ride bikes too.

Mal loves balloons, the first one we gave him is probably in space right now, so Gigi got a new one on her way out to ours and he was happy again… Dexter ate it yesterday. Thanks so much to everyone who came and those who sent best wishes. We love you all and couldn’t have survived without you 🙂 Here’s some more pics from the day.

And today he was hanging out in his new little chair, wearing his new little coat, and dad’s sunglasses. He’s pretty happy to be turning 2. Shout out to Aunty K for the little Chairs and Table! Ewan loves it too.

Guess who’s started climbing? Mr. Ewan is an army crawling, midnight farting, deep grunting, little sumo man who has started the mission to pull himself up into the standing position. All. The. Time. If he weren’t so cute I’d swear he was already in his 40’s. Time flies folks, I knew it – it’s not like I wasn’t prepared but wow. Just look at his face…. well his eyebrows anyway.

Oh and I know I’ve talked about it but these boys are brothers! They love each other so much it kills me. I take as many pictures as I can so I can prove it to them one day when they are fighting to the death as only brothers can.

Also growing on the farm is the garden. I’ve started harvesting and now I don’t quite know where we’re going to put it all. Potatoes are on the menu all week here and I’ve only pulled a quarter out of the ground. We have zucchini, onions, tomatoes, peas, potatoes kale and strawberries all ready to eat while spaghetti squash, cabbages, more peas, more potatoes and apples are all left to harvest! And one dahlia, I forgot to take a picture of the flower though.

Malcolm LOVES the harvesting process, he’s finally allowed to pull plants out of the ground.

The pigs are growing every day, and we’ve added three turkeys to the farm. It’s a bountiful little paradise here everyone, come on out and visit.

So after our first trip out to the West Coast as a family I discovered that Malcolm is terrified of the beach. Mom guilt big time haha. How can he be a BC Boy if he hates the ocean?? So, last week before Paul left for hunting we went out for dinner at the Cluxewe Cafe right on the ocean.

After dinner, where Malcolm enjoyed his dessert of Sticky Toffee Pudding, we went out to the beach. And Mal was ecstatic! Of course he loved this beach, there were rocks to throw. He dragged Paul to the edge of the ocean and just started throwing.

Ewan was a bit sick that day, little bit of a fever, so he was pretty cuddly. But I dipped his toes in the ocean anyway! Not having two sons afraid of the ocean!

Here are some pics of Malcolm enjoying desert. He is a boy after my own heart!

We are a movin’ and a shaken over here. I don’t think Malcolm has a setting for walk, just run run run. Little feet slapping down the hall, booted feet stomping around on the deck, sock feet sliding around the living room while he rides his push bike. It’s exhausting just watching him! But he loves it. Go go go in his world.

He got to go to the park three times last week. His favourite thing is slides. Paul goes down them with him, Gigi and Grampa Terry took him down, Aunty Rebekah took him down, even me – who hates slides though you may not know that. He’s got us all trained for sure. He just runs over to the slide and starts climbing – we have no choice ha. He now points to the park when we go past it, he has learned it’s the place to be.

Ewan is flopping around now! I can’t quite believe it. He is sporting a shiny red nose today because it’s RUG BURNED! He’s using his face to help him move hehehe. He’s perfecting his army crawl while he practices balancing up high on those knees. We are done people, done, life just got real. So I have to go now, kids to chase, you understand 🙂

Right now, Ewan is eating a peach, a whole peach! They are – I think – his favourite, judging by the animalistic concentration he places on the task. You wouldn’t believe it, there’s nothing left but the pit by the time he’s done, and he only has two bottom teeth. Last week I gave Ewan and Malcolm the brand new strawberries that had been growing in my garden. They were so big the Ewan had to use both hands.

Malcolm, not to be out done by strangeness in eating, always ends his meal by placing his bowl on his head. He also eats toast by sucking off the jam first then eating the bread.

Enjoy your meals this week! Be sure to pick up a box of plain cheerios just to snack on, apparently it’s the best!

This week Malcolm made a friend! Darius Hogstead came to visit us with Michelle and Adam and Keely. Darius and Mal are three weeks apart and if you believe all our mom updates on Facebook they are so similar it’s scary. Well on Saturday, (or was is Friday?), Dar came over and he and Mal hit it off so well I swear Disney music was playing in the background. They played hide and seek through the window, chased each other around the living room while both sucking on the same brand of soothie, jumped and climbed on beds and couches and laughed at each other, and finally Darius pushed Mal around on the back deck. It was a blast.

Ewan has had an eventful week himself. He has added solids to his diet, and slept in his playpen every night. He’s trying so hard to crawl, and he smiles SO BIG at everyone.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Eissfeldt came for another visit, and this time they brought cousin Kaleb! Mal and Kaleb had a hugely fun time throwing the ball in Gigi and Grandpa Terry’s back yard while also climbing their dirt hill. Kaleb was such a good big cousin making sure Mal didn’t fall backwards down the hill. Ewan made faces at everyone and enjoyed eating whatever they would sneak his way. We are gearing up for more visitors and more summer fun! This week Grandpa Terry and Gigi will be living next door in their travel trailer, and Ewan will get his six month check up. Also we now have tiny spaghetti squash plants, peas, small green tomatoes, cayenne peppers, zucchini’s and a whole apple tree full of apples growing away. Summer is wonderful.